"Where I live, it's like crowded and here it's open space," said Cristiano Holt-Martinez, 11.

"In my little neighborhood, we see cars, trucks, semis, garbage and stuff. Out here, it's just open skies and meadows and woods. You don't get that around the city," said Jonathan Newberry, 11.

Jonathan's neighborhood is just 45 minutes away in Des Moines. At his school, Moulton Elementary, 97 percent of the children get free or reduced school lunches and almost as many have never seen rural Iowa.

"She lives somewhere weird, like she told me she lives in a village," said Smith.

"We're like very different," said Maniquez.

After getting to play together, the kids who think they are so different learn the lesson Threshold's founders have sacrificed so much to teach.

"We've nearly gone broke and we've tried not to lose our house over it, but every time they go running out into the grass to disappear and hide and that face, it's more reward than I deserve, really," said Reischauer.

Do inner city kids know what a ditch is before they've seen one or understand a country greeting?

"They were really upset about why everybody was waving. Why are they looking at me?" said Reischauer.